Dark cloud of corruption is gone at last

LEBOWAKGOMO – The five provincial government departments that were under administration will be handed back to the Limpopo government with effect from March 1.

This was one of the announcements made by premier Stanley Mathabatha during his state of the province address delivered to legislature on Thursday.

“Our province had an overdraft of R1,7 billion and at one point public servants would not have received their salaries. The situation has been turned around and we have improved to a positive cash position of R4,4 billion as of the end of January this year,” Mathabatha said.

He said this was thanks to the selfless and tireless efforts of the Section 100 administrators who had ensured that provincial government’s systems such as supply chain management, internal audits, and supply chain management had improved. “Limpopo is now in the position to run on its own as from the 2014/15 financial year. No small or medium enterprise will have to wait 30 days without getting paid,” he promised.

Credit was also given to Sars, the Hawks, the Special Investigations Unit, SAPS, and the Auditor-General for their patience and assistance.

“The dark cloud of corruption and impunity has given way to the blue skies of sound financial administration and solvency. Limpopo has reclaimed its glory,” he said.

Regarding education in the province, Mathabatha said government was making all efforts to improve the quality of the curriculum’s content.

“Over 98% of the learners are benefitting from the no-fee school policy. This policy intervention has seen the majority of children from poor family backgrounds enjoying their rights to education.

Over 96% of learners in quintile 1, 2 and 3 and special schools are beneficiaries of the national school nutrition programme, commonly known as feeding schemes.

“Government also introduced the scholar transport programme with a view to ensuring easy and safer access to schools. Now 19 162 learners are benefitting from this programme. The plan for 2014/15 is to put 20 500 learners on this programme,” he said.

He said the government would commit additional resources to support early childhood development programmes, and an average of 35 000 people had completed the adult education and training programme.

He said now that the issue around the distribution of learner teacher support material had been resolved, it was expected that the gr. 12’s would manage an 80% pass rate this year.

Speaking about the shortage of doctors in hospitals across the province, Mathabatha said R20 million had been set aside to finance young people to study medicine in Cuba.

“Now 110 student doctors have left the country for Cuba to undergo training.”

“Limpopo’s economy is anchored in mining, agriculture and tourism.

“The challenge has been the insufficient labour absorption capacity of this sector.

There is a lack of infrastructure, especially water, rail and roads. The sector is not doing well in both its secondary and tertiary economy, particularly beneficiation of its products. We want to see mining companies adopting programmes in FET colleges or adopting the colleges themselves.

He went on to say that Limpopo produced 76% of the country’s mangoes, 65% of its papayas, 36% of its tea, 25% of its citrus, bananas and lychees, 60% of its avocadoes and 70% of its tomatoes.

“We are the second largest producer of potatoes in the country, accounting for 19% of the country’s total production. Our agricultural sector has declined in its contribution to the economy by 3%,” he said.

Tourism had increased by 35% since 2004 on the international front, and shown a steady growth domestically in the previous year.

Mathabatha said through the EPWP programme, 591 494 job opportunities were created and 49% went to the youth while 60% went to women.